I hate to write a negative review, but this book was a difficult read, as it is filled with the author's diatribes against modern women, and she obviously is a disillusioned Victorian. It is also hard to like any of the protagonists. At no point in the book could the author even "allow" that women could be as intelligent and capable as men. A case in point; the intelligent woman who designed the air ship in the story is considered not competent to fly it, and expresses a willingness to throw away her own life, when questioned by the men who work for her, and consider her unfit to pilot the ship she invented! It is enough to make you gnash your teeth. I read to the end hoping it would improve. It did not. Please spare yourselves the frustration, and skip this book. There are no happy endings here to "mitigate" the anti-woman stance, either.
This is a story of a stage actress, and the unusual turns her life ends up taking. The authors write extremely well, and keep you reading. However in this book one of the protagonists did not have the happy ending I had hoped for. I cannot say any more than that without giving too much away. All in all it was a good read, though. I will certainly read another of their books, now.
I have loved Walden for years. Thoreau's humor is exceptional. This is really about how he felt while living in a little cabin in Walden woods, so it does not have a plot. If read as a diary, it will please many, I am sure.
This is the last collection of Mr. Banfield's columns that had been published in the newspaper there in Queensland. As a non-Australian, I found the natural history writing excellent and very instructive. However, I was really bothered by his huge prejudice against the Aborigines.This only shows up in a couple of his columns, but it drags the "tone" of his book down.
This reads as rather dated, unfortunately. I felt like he was trying to justify some of the atrocities of the past. Other than that, if you are willing to wade through the treacly romanticism at times, the author does have some good things to say. Plan to attack this one with a shovel....
Marie Bruemmer’s book reviews